[Python-Dev] Unittest PEP do's and don'ts (BDFL pronouncement) (original) (raw)
Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Thu Jul 17 12🔞55 CEST 2008
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Ben Finney wrote:
The function name should say all that the function does, from the perspective of the caller.
I have to disagree with that (and I think you'll find plenty of other folks here will disagree as well). A good function names needs to have a few characters:
- serve as a mnemonic reminder as to what the function does for a programmer already familiar with the API
- allow a less familiar user to easily look it up in the API documentation
- be easy to remember to make the transition to familiarity with the API as rapid as possible
Wanting to say everything a function does in its name is an utterly unreasonable goal that leads to ridiculously long function names that nobody can remember.
Taking an existing function such as assertRaises and going "hey, we aren't using the return value from this, wouldn't it be really convenient if it told us the exact exception it actually caught?" doesn't cause any problems for existing code, and makes it much easier to write tests that need to check additional details about the exception that is raised (e.g. to check that the correct error code is captured and reported for things like OSError).
The essence of the function remains unchanged - you're still asserting that a particular exception is raised. Returning the actual exception object that was caught is merely a convenience that makes a lot of sense.
Try to think of it as being like adding a new optional argument to a function - just because the function now provides more flexibility is no reason to change it's name (e.g. when the key and reversed parameters were added to list.sort, the method name stayed the same). Taking an unused return value and making it meaningful is a similar kind of change.
Cheers, Nick.
-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia
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